Michigan Economy Doing Better Than California?!

For the six months starting last August and continuing through March of this year, the jobless rate in Michigan has been lower than California's rate (see chart above).  That follows 88 straight months going back to March 2003 when Michigan's jobless rate was above California's.  How interesting that Michigan, the "basket-case" state with the highest jobless rate in the country during most of the last recession, now has a jobless rate almost two points below the "unionacracy" of California.  

And who would have thought we'd ever see this happening - some companies are now relocating from California to Michigan!  According to this report from Joe Vranich, 70 companies left California from January 1 through April 15 of this year, and the #3 destination behind Texas (14) and Arizona (6) was Michigan, with four relocations (tied with Nevada).  And just last Thursday an Irving-based company (Blackford Capital) announced that it's the fifth California company heading this year for greener and more business-friendly pastures in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  That's "disinvestment event #78" so far this year according to Vranich, who regularly tracks the companies moving out of California.  

Here's something else: According to current U-Haul rates, it's 35% more expensive to rent a one-way truck from Los Angeles to Grand Rapids ($2,673), than from Grand Rapids to Los Angeles ($1,980), implying a higher relative demand for trucks from California to Michigan than vice-versa, i.e., a net out-migration of people moving from California to Michigan.